Texas sports betting: Pro teams line up in favor of legalization

Jim Crane, Jerry Jones, Tilman Fertitta and Cal McNair have attached their big names and Texas pro sports franchises to the same state-changing proposal.

Is this the time to legalize mobile sports betting in Texas?

The owners of the Astros, Cowboys, Rockets, Texans and more insist that it is.

“Sports betting is going to happen whether it is regulated or not,” Crane said Monday in a statement released by the Texas Sports Betting Alliance after a pair of bills were filed in the Texas House and Senate. “Rather than having Texans betting illegally through unknown companies in foreign countries, this bill will allow controls and safeguards for sports betting in Texas while generating significant revenue that will be used to reduce everyone’s property taxes in Texas.”

Jim McIngvale, known more than ever as “Mattress Mack” partly because of his enormous sports bets on the World Series and College Football Playoff championship, questions whether mobile sports betting should be legalized in our state.

“I’m known as one of the biggest sports gamblers in the world,” McIngvale told the Chronicle. “Everything I do, I bet legally. Driving to Louisiana for two hours is not that much of an inconvenience. And I think all that glitters is not gold. They’ve got to look at it, because I’m concerned that the revenue estimates, as far as what’s going to come into the state, are way overblown.”

With Super Bowl 57 looming and March Madness — which features the NCAA men’s Final Four in Houston — a month away, the sports-betting conversation in Texas will only become louder.

My personal view after spending the past few weeks speaking with billionaires, a former state governor and interested parties on both sides of a highly complex issue that combines modern sports, old-fashioned politics and smartphones in a truly 2023 way: We should all be able to vote on this and use our individual voices.

Especially in the wide-open state of Texas, which was nationally ahead of the curve by being open for business early during the COVID-19 pandemic and convinced Elon Musk that this huge place was the new ideal home for Tesla.

“This is the most momentum we’ve ever had. All of us are very confident in our chances to at least get this to a floor vote,” said Cara Gustafson, spokesperson for the TSBA. “We’re all very optimistic — granted, always cautiously optimistic in the Texas legislature — but we all believe that the time is now and that we’re in a really good place to actually get this to the November ballot.”

The San Antonio Spurs, Dallas Mavericks, Houston Dynamo and Dash, and Austin FC were associated with BetMGM and DraftKings in the same press release, which isn’t an everyday occurrence.

If you are eventually allowed to bet on sports via your phone in Texas, a constitutional amendment is expected to create the contemporary path.

Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick is seen as the key to moving the proposed legislation forward. Sources close to the issue describe Patrick as being open to the legalization of mobile sports betting in Texas if enough support can initially be raised in Austin. Interview requests left for Patrick's office were not returned. 

In 2018, the U.S. Supreme Court removed a federal law that prohibited most states from allowing sports betting. Thirty five of 50 states now allow it, and that number continues to rise.  

Right now, we’re forced to watch the Caesars Sportsbook TV ad with Peyton, Eli, Cooper and Archie Manning over and over during football season, but we aren’t allowed to legally bet on the Kansas City Chiefs versus the Philadelphia Eagles on our phones in the state we live in.

The TSBA, using a report from Eilers & Krejcik Gaming, estimates that more than $8 billion is illegally bet in Texas annually.

If the legislation is approved, Texas could become the largest legal sports betting market in the United States.

I don’t gamble, mostly because when I have a few times in the past, I’ve immediately lost the $20 that was supposed to become $1,000. But friends and colleagues who love to bet mentioned sketchy offshore websites as the only way to conveniently bet on sports in Texas.

“I introduced SB 715 and SJR 39 because Texas needs to bring security and safety into the world of mobile sports betting,” said State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, a Brenham Republican, in a statement. “It makes sense to rein in all of the illegal offshore betting and keep sports wagering funds here in Texas. This is a sensible plan, which is why so many states have already passed similar legislation.”

In March 2021, McIngvale wrote for the Chronicle an opinion piece entitled “It’s time for the Texas Legislature to legalize sports betting.”

“I hopped on a plane, flew to Colorado and placed a bet on the Super Bowl on my smartphone at the airport,” McIngvale wrote. “Why Colorado? Because sports betting is illegal in Texas.”

He also wrote that as a proud Texan, he would “much rather have the tax revenue from my bets directly benefit the people of Texas,” while referring to a new source of revenue that could pay for "education and other projects like updating the Texas power grid."

Two weeks ago, though, McIngvale said his opinion has been altered.

“My change of heart is that I know myself and I've seen the light as far as impulsiveness on me to sports gambling,” McIngvale said. “Because I’ve got to drive to Louisiana, it limits those impulses by a factor of 1,000. So I’m not in favor of sports gambling in Texas.”

How big is the reach of the Texas Sports Betting Alliance?

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry has become a spokesperson. A two-minute video of Perry discussing “the great state of Texas” is prominently featured on the same website that displays familiar Texans, Astros, Cowboys, Rangers and Mavericks logos.

“Texas is built on the core principle of individual freedom, and we pride ourselves on being an economic powerhouse in the nation,” Perry says in the video. “Legalizing mobile sports betting in Texas will finally allow the state to protect consumers from illegal offshore betting sites while keeping the money generated from betting in Texas to benefit Texans.”

This isn’t wildly speculative and uncontrolled Bitcoin.

This isn’t the latest sports-related fad or a temporary era that will soon fade in with other eras.

This is sports betting. It’s been around forever, and it will be around as long as human beings are competing at sports.

“Even in the 1800s, I’m pretty sure that two guys met on a dirt street in Dodge City, and one guy said, ‘I bet you I can outrun you from here to the end of town,’ ” Perry said. “Then you back up even further, and I’m pretty sure there were people standing in the Colosseum going, ‘I bet you my guy will beat your guy. I bet you my guy kills your guy.’ ”

The classic over/under is old news. Combined point totals and favorites/underdogs are antiquated in a legalized sports-betting industry that now stretches from coast to coast while endless rows of pluses and minuses decorate TVs and phones across the country.

While ESPN features “Daily Wager" and huge Super Bowl bets are eagerly tracked, an NBA logo attached to a photo of Allen Iverson for a promotion of "$100 Risk Free Bets" has become commonplace.

“I don’t look at this any different than people who educate themselves about the stock market and then they go put a bet on this stock that is going to go up,” Perry said. “I look at people who really know what they’re doing. They know these teams, the intimacies of the team. They know who they’re playing. I mean, they may even know who the referees are.”

State Sen. Carol Alvarado, a Houston Democrat, backs increased gaming options in Texas but believes that pushing mobile sports betting as a revenue generator lacks “appeal for people” during a time when the state has a record $33 million budget surplus.

Alvarado, who filed SJR 17, said she is focused on creating jobs and diversifying Texas' economy by proposing the addition of four high-end resort-style casinos, including one in the Houston area. 

“I’m excited about it,” Alvarado said. “I’ve been filing some version of this since 2009, and I’ve been very patient, and I’m going to continue to be patient because I think it’s inevitable. Eventually, it’s going to happen.” 

Fertitta, who owns the Rockets and multiple casinos, said Texas is falling behind the times while the majority of the country legalizes mobile sports betting.

“Texas, I like to say, we do things that other states don’t do, in a progressive way,” Fertitta told the Chronicle. “In this case, we should do what other states do. We should never be the last at anything.”

The easiest way to figure out a mounting sports/politics debate that isn't going away: Let Texans vote on an issue that is much more complicated than simply placing a quick sports bet on a phone.